The Italian team looked slightly behind McLaren, and Felipe Massa slightly behind his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, until qualifying, which has not been dominated by Ferrari since 1979. "I was laughing all the way around my in-lap as I just can't believe I'm on pole," Turkey winner Massa, who declared on Wednesday that he doesn't like the famous street circuit, beamed. Raikkonen is P2 by a tiny margin, although Massa, the Finn and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren all set near-identical final lap times.

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MCLAREN-MERCEDES

Not many punters would have bet against a Hamilton pole position, raising some questions about whether Ferrari - although undoubtedly better at Monaco than last year - have opted for slightly lower initial fuel loads, which is a more crucial factor than usual here. "I am pleased with how the car felt and our strategy," Hamilton said. Heikki Kovalainen had a starkly mixed morning with his quickest practice time and shunt, but he remained very competitive until Q3, when he settled on the back of the second row. "I don't know where the small gap to the cars in front comes from," the disappointed Finn said.

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BMW-SAUBER

Nick Heidfeld is enduring a Monaco nightmare, where his difficulty in heating up the tyres seems to be a particular handicap. He was amongst the slowest runners in the wet-dry practice, and - for the first time in 28 races - he failed to make the 'Q3' cut in the afternoon with pace that was up to a whopping full second slower than his teammate Robert Kubica's. The Pole, as per usual, is having no such problems -- fifth in practice and on the grid, although he did confirm that Hamilton's car distracted him - but "did not hold me up" - on his last qualifying flying lap.

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WILLIAMS-TOYOTA

Nico Rosberg is arguably the star so far of the Monaco 2008 meeting -- second quickest on Thursday, fourth on the damp Saturday morning, second in the low-fuel 'Q2', and finally sixth on the grid. Teammate Kazuki Nakajima made it through to 'Q2' but he is a lot slower here than Rosberg; the definitive Q2 deficit was an enormous 1.2 seconds. "Nico did really well today so I think I should have been better," the Toyota-backed Japanese admitted.

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RENAULT

Nelson Piquet was only three tenths slower than his teammate in Q1, but it was embarrassingly still not enough to graduate to the next phase of the qualifying session. Back to back race winner Fernando Alonso stepped up his pace impressively after Q1, and he will start from seventh -- ten full positions ahead of the struggling occupant of the sister R28.

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TOYOTA

Jarno Trulli emerged from his difficult start to the weekend to be eighth on the grid, while Timo Glock missed the top-ten 'Q3' cut by the merest of margins. "It's frustrating because the weekend had been going well. I don't know what happened," Glock said.

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RED BULL-RENAULT

David Coulthard, who had throttle problems on Thursday and an oil pressure problem on Saturday morning, was unhurt after losing control of his RB4 at an incredible 297kph coming out of the tunnel, meaning that he couldn't take part in 'Q3'. The Scottish veteran, who is understood to have visited the medical centre for a check, didn't rule out driver error as he came onto the brakes, and the team also didn't confirm the cause of the crash immediately after qualifying. Many paddock pundits, however, suspect another car failure for the Milton Keynes based team. Mark Webber has had another solid weekend and is ninth on the grid.

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HONDA

Jenson Button must be praying for Sunday's forecast rain, because his pace on the wet track in the morning - although not reflected in the actual final time sheet because of the intermittent dry running - was extremely quick. In the dry, however, the RA108 is a 'Q2' dweller, although Rubens Barrichello - second for Stewart in the last wet Monaco GP back in 1997 - only just scraped into the second segment in qualifying.

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TORO ROSSO-FERRARI

Not in a single session at Monaco this weekend has Sebastian Vettel, whose misery is further compounded by his five-position gearbox penalty, been faster than his impressive teammate Sebastien Bourdais, the multiple champion of Champ Car and an F1 newcomer. Both, however, are not happy with the brand new STR3 car, which was not good enough to make the initial Q1 cut. "I'm hoping for rain -- lots of rain!" Vettel said.

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FORCE INDIA-FERRARI

Last year at Monaco, Adrian Sutil shone very brightly in a wet practice session, and so it was also in 2008 as he went eighth quickest in the morning. The German then outqualified his experienced teammate Giancarlo Fisichella by an impressive margin, although both are at the back of the grid. Fisichella could only do two instead of the usual three runs in Q1, because his broken gearbox from the morning session was still being replaced.